From schools to colleges, Andhra Pradesh incentivises education for students & parents

Ever since Jaganmohan Reddy stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh last year, he promised radical reforms in the education sector. Now the state is going all out to incentivise school and college education. In a bid to revolutionise educational services to the underprivileged, the state has adopted a rather peculiar model embedded with a plethora of welfare schemes. 

One of the first welfare programmes announced by chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy is the flagship ‘Amma Vodi’ (mother’s lap) scheme which caters to students at every level of their education all the way till professional courses. Under ‘Amma Vodi’, mothers from marginalised sectors will receive an amount of Rs 15,000 per annum for sending their wards to school. Students between class 1 and 12 hailing from all recognised government, private aided, private unaided school or junior colleges including residential institutions are eligible to be beneficiaries under this scheme. The government says that the thought behind this scheme is to encourage parents belonging to the marginalised sector to send their kids to study. A total of 42,33,098 mothers are benefitting from this scheme as on date.

When it comes to students beyond class 12, the government has not one but two schemes on offer. The first, ‘Jagannana Vidya Deevena’ (Jagananna Education Blessing), is a refurbished version of the scheme that the present CM’s father, YS Rajasekhara Reddy introduced. The scheme was called ‘Fee Reimbursement’ until it was reintroduced by the present government after making a few vital changes. Previously, the reimbursement cap was fixed at Rs 35,000 irrespective of the course fee whereas the new scheme covers 100% of the college fee even if it exceeds Rs 35,000. Previously the fee was directly paid by the government to the college establishments which led to college managements neglecting students under the scheme and abstaining from ramping up facilities due to delay in payments. But this problem has now been rectified. In a revolutionary decision, the CM announced that every quarter, the fee amount will be credited into the bank accounts of mothers of the students directly instead of being paid to colleges. This, according to the government, gives the parents a chance to hold college accountable apart from ensuring that payments are made on time giving managements no scope to be complacent. A total of 18,51,043 students are benefitting from this scheme as per government records.

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A major concern that parents hailing from mainly from the rural landscape of Andhra Pradesh had was the cost of accommodation that they would have to endure if their kids wished to travel to a nearby city to pursue higher education as the ‘fee reimbursement’ scheme did not cover the same. The second scheme catering to students pursuing higher education solved this problem. Under 'Jagananna Vasathi Deevena’, the government is extending financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to ITI students, Rs 15,000 to polytechnic students and Rs 20,000 to degree students to help them cope with their accommodation costs and other miscellaneous expenditure. A mammoth 15,56,956 students are receiving this assistance.  A scheme called the ‘Videsi Vidya Deevena’ is also being run for extending financial aid to students who wish to pursue their higher education abroad.

Apart from advancing financial assistance to students and incentivising education, the AP government has taken giant steps towards improving the standard of education at government institutions. Under a scheme called ‘Nadu-Nedu’ (Then-Now), the government is revamping every single government educational institution in the state, 15,715 schools which have been taken up in the first phase of this mega drive are expected to be ready by the last week of August. From hygienic conditions to new benches to new buildings to new English labs, the government has come up with a list of nine essentials which have to be mandatorily taken care of.

Though there has been a lot of controversies around making English medium education mandatory in government schools, a lot of experts have lauded the government for this move. Opening up new opportunities for students hailing from government institutions, which otherwise would have been out of their grasp primarily due to the lack of language proficiency, is the thought behind this move, according to the top leadership of the government. 

Ever since the advent of exorbitant corporate colleges in the two Telugu speaking states, cracking competitive exams without being trained by someone seemed impossible for someone hailing from a government institution. Putting an end to this issue, the government recently announced that special coaching for competitive exams like IIT-JEE, language proficiency tests like GRE and TOEFL will be given in government schools and colleges. The government is also mulling supplying iPads to students above class 8 and the same was discussed in a recent review meeting chaired by the chief minister. The government has also come up with a plan to counsel students from class 8.

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